THE YEW. 519 
more than twenty inches in diameter, there have 
been counted the extremely large number of two 
hundred and eighty annual layers, exhibiting a 
growth in the same number of years of only five 
feet in circumference. In olden times the Yew 
furnished to archers their best bows, and though 
to a large extent our British Yew-Tree wood 
is now disused for that purpose, it furnishes some 
of the best and most valuable of native timber 
for the purposes of the cabinet-maker. 
The Yew, however, though a slow grower, is 
comparatively casy of cultivation, and it may be 
propagated either by layers or by seed, if planted 
in a moist and clayish or heavy loam soil, and in 
a sheltered or shady position. 
